Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Residents don't alter stand on mixed project by homes

Homeowners in Garden Manor don't mind the mixed-use plan's housing side. It's the commercial side that bothers them.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published December 14, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Shopping a proposed commercial and residential center to adjacent neighbors, the Sembler Co. found few buyers at a meeting Monday with the Garden Manor Neighborhood Association, the residents most directly affected by plans to develop property at Ninth Avenue N and 66th Street.

"I don't think we got anybody to sign in favor" in August, when the project was first presented to Garden Manor and other nearby neighborhoods, said Jed Healey, co-president of the association. "We haven't changed our position."

Sembler representatives told an audience of about 50 that the company is proposing a mixed-use development on 18 acres the company has contracted to buy from the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg.

The project, on one of the largest remaining pieces of undeveloped land in the city, would spend some $30-million on 88,000 square feet of commercial space, including a 45,000-square-foot Publix grocery store. The project would include 48 townhomes with prices starting at $300,000.

It is the commercial aspect that neighbors fear, thinking it will bring more traffic to what is becoming a shopping hub in south Pinellas County. Garden Manor already deals with a grocery mall to its south and the Sembler-built Crossroads center to the north, as well as Tyrone Square Mall and other shopping complexes.

Sembler says its traffic studies show minimal new impact on adjacent roads and communities.

The project now has the support of Steve Plice, a neighborhood activist who had advised this group in August about how to oppose the project before accepting a consulting job with the diocese over the plans.

"Sometimes commercial property takes traffic off the road," he told the residents. "It depends on the kind of commercial."

Plice said the property is for sale and ripe for development of some kind. The land is zoned institutional with a future use designated as single-family residential that would allow about 72 homes. Given the value of land in the city, he said, any investor would want to build commercial or high-density residential to maximize income.

"I'm beginning to think you might want to look at the proposal more," he said. "If not this, then what?"

Several in the crowd shouted Plice down. Some accused him of "flip flopping" because of his new employment.

Sembler representatives said they would apply this month to rezone the property, and the community would then see all the supporting studies. They also offered concessions to the neighborhoods to address concerns about the site plan, landscaping and traffic, as well as agreements about future uses of the land.

After the Sembler representatives left, some residents said the real problem is the commercial uses.

Garden Manor residents want to keep the area residential and don't care how much the diocese or Sembler can earn from the land. As Plice had said before leaving the meeting: "It's all about money. There's no doubt about that."

[Last modified December 14, 2005, 00:14:15]